All theses Answers are great and work in all kinds of cases.. one thing to add to this is remember everything you do and how you can make it better.. your not going to be 100 percent correct every time but you can educate yourself to be better each and every hunt.. if you dont pay attention to your mistakes youll never be a better hunter..

I LIKE TO BE 15 TO 20 FT UP. AS FAR AS HOW MUCH I TRIM UP THE STAND. I TRY TO KEEP IT AS THICK AS I CAN. USUALLY WILL CUT ABOUT 4 SHOOTING LANES FOR EACH DIRECTION. EARLY IN THE YEAR I LIKE TO PUT MY STANDS BY THE FOOD SOURCE CATCHING THE DEER IN THERE LATE SUMMER FEEDING PATTERNS. AS THE YEAR GOES ALONG I USUALLY END UP MOVING THE STANDS BACK TOWARDS THE BEDDING AREA, BUT BE CAREFULL TO NOT GET TO CLOSE TO BUMP THEM OUT ON YOUR WAY IN AND OUT. TRY TO FIND NATURAL FUNNELS AND BOTTLE NECKS. ALWAYS BE AWARE OF THE WIND WHEN SITTING IN A STAND!

BUT THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE IS KNOW THAT NO STAND SETUP IS GOING TO BE PERFECT! NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRY THE DEER WILL DO SOMETHING TOTALY UNEXPECTED.

THE ONLY BAD STAND SETUP IS THE ONE THAT SITS IN YOUR SHED OR IN YOUR GARAGE AT HOME!

ive had tons of deer walk by/under my stands from 12-15 ft up. Never saw a need to go higher. set up in staging areas. dont waste youre time in open fields. If youre gonna hunt a field edge, face the woods. The set ups you see on tv dont work in the real world of hunting pressured deer.

"Democracy is a lamb and two wolves voting on what to have for lunch; Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote." Ben Franklin

dont waste youre time in open fields. If youre gonna hunt a field edge, face the woods. The set ups you see on tv dont work in the real world of hunting pressured deer.

I'm going to have respectfully disagree with you, sir. I hunt field edges from time to time and have had good success. Deer don't come into fields on the same trail everytime so unless you have a "money" trail, hunting field edges can be awsome. Most the time deer will come into a field and then work the edges and mill around so if your lucky one could come out into the field a ways away and then work its way towards you. You did say pressured deer however, the area I hunt isn't terribly pressured during bow season so it may be different.

Agree with WW regarding the angles and smaller kill zones. I would also add that higher stands distort the actual distance to the target, so make sure you have a range finder.

About 15 years ago, when rangefinders weren't common (or even invented) I missed a decent buck. My arrow hit his at his feet. I thought he was about 22 yds and when I stepped the distance off from the base of my tree he was 36 yards. I felt like such an idiot and the deer deserves someone who paid closer attention to detail. Hard lesson at the time, but i'm better today for it.